Entries tagged with emergencies

Hello buttercups, 'tis I, here to ask you to: check the batteries in your fire alarms, poke at your outlets and make sure no papers/dust/pet hair is gunking anything up and that they're not running hot or frayed, and if you have a space heater or an electric blanket sort of doo-dad, make sure you're following usage guidelines and that they're not shoved up between a couch and a wall while they're on, because that's what happened in the apartment directly above ours last night.

A ten unit apartment building was nearly razed because of a space heater, but it was 9 PM on a Friday instead of 3 AM on a weekday, or 2 PM on a weekday, and we were home after dinner watching The Cabin in the Woods, and HEARD THE ALARM FOR PROBABLY HALF AN HOUR before I thought to text the landlord about it. To be fair, I thought it was just a wakeup alarm-alarm, because Kris sometimes sets more than when she's trying to get up for an appointment - and our alarm is more of the EHN EHN EHN honk than a BEEP BEEP BEEP and Mike and Kris actually went outside to find out which apartment was beeping, but it was dark and the door was cold, so we figured it was a false alarm.

Of course, we didn't know it was a fire until the new tenants came home from their own dinner, and banged on the upstairs doors yelling FIRE.

Instead of losing all of our electronics due to water damage, we got one wet couch cushion from the most ideally placed ceiling leak imaginable: someplace we would notice it right away so it wouldn't get mildewed, and thoughtfully distanced from any outlets or lamps or laptops.

We checked our fire alarms in the bedroom and the living room today AND THEY WERE BOTH DEAD ::cue hollow laughter:: even though I am pretty vigilant about that shit and I swear we bought some 9 volts at a 7-11 not very long ago, so maybe buy a dry erase marker and write the date you put the battery in on the case? Which is what we will do later today.

And because emergencies affect everyone differently, maybe have a bug-out bag. I actually do, with: passports, first aid kids, a handcrank/solar powered radio that is also a flashlight and a cell phone battery charger, a spare iPhone charger, water bottles and granola bars, allergy medicine and a sewing kit, - but I didn't actually remember to get it, although I had the presence of mind to grab a sweater, a jacket, a scarf, my wallet, cell and a charger, Matt's phone and wallet, an asthma inhaler and Burt's Bees before fucking with proper shutdown of the PS3 for five minutes for no good reason. It seemed very important at the time. PRIORITIES, FOLKS. I also wanted to get Kris to move her car before the firemen came, but their reaction time was better than ours, and the car got boxed in the fenced lot by FOUR TRUCKS. ::cue more hollow laughter::

So: no water damage to our electronics or Matt's books - you know, the things he uses to earn his living - no injuries to anyone in the building, and only real damage to the new guy's apartment just above ours, especially a charred couch that was full of down and has left sticky blackened feathers clinging to the stairs. There's supposed to be a cleaning crew coming to fix up his apartment this morning, and hopefully they'll do preventative things so that we don't black mold in the walls/floors above.